AT&T tosses smartphone, tablets users more data, raises prices

AT&T smartphone and tablet users will get higher monthly data bills, though …

AT&T announced on Wednesday that it has rejiggered its smartphone and tablet data plans, with changes going into effect beginning Sunday, January 22. The bad news is that prices are going up, but at least AT&T is giving users more data allowance to take off some of the sting.

Previous smartphone plans included a $15 DataPlus tier that included just 200MB of data usage per month, and a $25 DataPro tier that included 2GB of data. DataPlus users that went over 200MB would get charged another $15 for an additional 200MB allotment, while DataPro users would get an additional 1GB for $10.

DataPlus is now $20 for 300MB, and Data Pro is $30 for 3GB. If you want mobile hotspot tethering, you'll have to pay an additional $20 for a 5GB DataPro plan. As before, DataPlus users that go over the 300MB limit will have to pay $20 for each 300MB bucket of bits they use in a month, while DataPro users will pay $10 for each 1GB bucket. Also as before, light data users can save a little each month, but get heavily penalized for going over their limit.

Tablet users on AT&T—most of which use iPads—will still have access to a low-end data option. The $15/250MB per month plan will stay, but the $25/2GB plan will go away in favor of two higher-end plans: $30 for 3GB per month, or $50 for 5GB per month. With this kind of pricing, we think it makes more sense for AT&T to simply charge users $10 for every 1GB of data they use, regardless of how long it takes them to use it.

Users that are already on less-expensive monthly plans for both smartphones and tablets will get to keep them until they change data plans, for whatever reason, at which time the new plans will be the only options. Users still on grandfathered $30 unlimited plans will also get to keep those as long as they do not change plans, though they could still be subject to data rate throttling. These increases also come just months after getting rid of all but the most expensive monthly texting plan.

AT&T claimed throughout the process of trying to acquire T-Mobile that customers would not be charged more, but Mark Collins, AT&T Mobility's senior vice president of data and voice products, noted that rising data usage is to blame for the increase. "Mobile broadband has become part of our daily lives-and data usage has skyrocketed," he wrote on the company's blog. "As the AT&T network gets even faster with 4G LTE deployment, and devices and applications become even more sophisticated, it's clear that data usage will surge even more."

AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom told Ars that across AT&T's customer base, data usage is increasing about 40 percent on a yearly basis. Though prices have gone up, "more data goes along with it," he said, addressing the increasing demand for wireless data use.

89 Reader Comments

With this kind of pricing, we think it makes more sense for AT&T to simply charge users $10 for every 1GB of data they use, regardless of how long it takes them to use it.

Maybe from the user's perspective, but AT&T is out to get the maximum amount of money out of each customer, and setting a price floor is an easy way to do that. I would love a $10/Gig plan (heck, I'd love a $5/500M plan even more, or even a $1/100M plan), AT&T would never do it because most people would end up paying much less than they do now for their current usage pattern.

With this kind of pricing, we think it makes more sense for AT&T to simply charge users $10 for every 1GB of data they use, regardless of how long it takes them to use it.

Maybe from the user's perspective, but AT&T is out to get the maximum amount of money out of each customer, and setting a price floor is an easy way to do that. I would love a $10/Gig plan (heck, I'd love a $5/500M plan even more, or even a $1/100M plan), AT&T would never do it because most people would end up paying much less than they do now for their current usage pattern.

With this kind of pricing, we think it makes more sense for AT&T to simply charge users $10 for every 1GB of data they use, regardless of how long it takes them to use it.

Maybe from the user's perspective, but AT&T is out to get the maximum amount of money out of each customer, and setting a price floor is an easy way to do that. I would love a $10/Gig plan (heck, I'd love a $5/500M plan even more, or even a $1/100M plan), AT&T would never do it because most people would end up paying much less than they do now for their current usage pattern.

Well, I wouldn't. My wife and I are on the family plan that only allows 200 megs a month per iPhone. We've never gone above that. We don't do much on 3G when we're away from a WiFi point except use iMessage to each other and check the weather and the occasional GPS thing with MotionX. Granted, I'm not the typical usage case, but I'd like to pay way less for not using hardly any data.

But I agree, AT&T wouldn't ever do that. It's in their business model to "screw over the customer as much as we can". I think that's in their motto too.

Glad I still have the unlimited data plan for $30 a month. I really think this is getting out of control. If T-Mobile had better prepaid phones, I would be on the $30 unlimited text/data with 100 minutes.

We're supposed to be grateful for the extra gig, yet it wasn't long ago that $30 got you unlimited data. It's so obvious this was their plan all along. Introduce tiered data, but since they were the first to do it, drop the price 5 bucks so people would be less pissed. Then later go back to the original price. They increased the allotment a gig but that really doesn't matter to them at all since 90% of users probably use less than a gig a month. So it's just extra cash in their pockets.

Still, amazingly, it's better than Verizon, who shamelessly went from unlimited to 2 GB without changing the price at all.

With this kind of pricing, we think it makes more sense for AT&T to simply charge users $10 for every 1GB of data they use, regardless of how long it takes them to use it.

Maybe from the user's perspective, but AT&T is out to get the maximum amount of money out of each customer, and setting a price floor is an easy way to do that. I would love a $10/Gig plan (heck, I'd love a $5/500M plan even more, or even a $1/100M plan), AT&T would never do it because most people would end up paying much less than they do now for their current usage pattern.

Pretty much this. AT&T's goal with this price move isn't to provide more "value" to customers (better $/GB price), its to increase ARPU - average revenue per user. A $5 per smartphone ARPU increase is their end goal.

Personally I'm surprised More people arnt using TMobile's No-Contract, 100mins/unlimited Text/Unlimited Data plan for 30$/month. I understand the stickershock of buying a phone outright but its gotta be better than the 100/mo you end up spending on ATT/VZN.

The one thing I will say in favor of AT&T is that the $30 text plan includes (oddly) unlimited calls to any mobile ON ANY CARRIER. Doing that, I can reduce my monthly minutes by a lot compared to other carriers.

Glad I still have the unlimited data plan for $30 a month. I really think this is getting out of control. If T-Mobile had better prepaid phones, I would be on the $30 unlimited text/data with 100 minutes.

You can pick up a great "google experience" android phone for t-mobile on ebay (something like the LG G2x) for ~$200 these days...there is no need to buy a phone that is specifically sold for their prepaid plans, any phone will work!

If you look at Verizon's rates, they are almost the same as AT&T. It's not even like they are trying to compete on price. As soon as Verizon or At&T raises rates, the other sees it as a signal to do the same.

Text messaging is really a rip off, 20 cents to send and receive?! so you send a text to your wife, that's 40 cents! for the same message! I've already seen my text message usage drop by more than half with imessage, why do I need unlimited texts? I wish there was an app that can auto-send txt messages on a defined interval for you. I would send text message directly to AT&T protesting their crappy plan.

The T-Mo plans are neat, but you can't get an iPhone (Android isn't bad though), and you have to deal with T-Mo's less than stellar coverage. If you never leave the city/burbs then it's a great option, but if you like to travel it becomes much less attractive.

Glad I still have the unlimited data plan for $30 a month. I really think this is getting out of control. If T-Mobile had better prepaid phones, I would be on the $30 unlimited text/data with 100 minutes.

You can pick up a great "google experience" android phone for t-mobile on ebay (something like the LG G2x) for ~$200 these days...there is no need to buy a phone that is specifically sold for their prepaid plans, any phone will work!

yep this is what i did with my prepaid phone the sim cards are interchangeable same for at&t prepaid sims

If you look at Verizon's rates, they are almost the same as AT&T. It's not even like they are trying to compete on price. As soon as Verizon or At&T raises rates, the other sees it as a signal to do the same.

Text messaging is really a rip off, 20 cents to send and receive?! so you send a text to your wife, that's 40 cents! for the same message! I've already seen my text message usage drop by more than half with imessage, why do I need unlimited texts? I wish there was an app that can auto-send txt messages on a defined interval for you. I would send text message directly to AT&T protesting their crappy plan.

I dumped the text plan when they dropped the $5/month for 200 texts option. We have most of our friends switched over to iMessage now, and even if we didn't you need to send 80 texts a month to even break even with that unlimited plan. The $.20/$.25 per-message rate is highway robbery, but it's still way cheaper than the only available message plan for us.

It's a shame the barrier to entry is so high in the cellphone market in the US, because it's clear that the current incumbents are not interested in competing on price at all.

Here's a stupid question: If data is all the same, why does it cost so damn much for someone who has the low end plan to get more data? The high end plan says it's $10 for each additional GB, so why is it $20 for the lower end people to get less data?

What would really interest me is finding out exactly how much a MB or GB of data costs the carriers.

But then, the ISPs are the same way.

Does it REALLY cost Comcast nearly $60 a month or more for less than 250 GB of data? Does 500 GB REALLY cost "double" what 250 GB costs????

How much the data "costs" is a tricky question. The per-byte cost is miniscule, some almost infinitesimal fraction of a cent in electricity and depreciation on equipment. The problem is that all of the hardware to support sending that byte costs real money, as do the salaries of everybody who works there from the CEO to the line techs to the call center staff to the janitors. There is also a minor opportunity cost on each byte (when you're using the byte your neighbor can't), so there is an incentive to keep people from hogging the lines and degrading the experience for all other users on the system. The higher rates for more data usage aren't there because you are costing them so much per byte, but because you're forcing them to upgrade their equipment faster to deal with higher data usage and to potentially offset neighbors that switch to a competitor because their service is slow.

That said, the prices they actually set have very little basis with any technical reality. It's pretty much a business decision on how much to squeeze the customers and how much they think you will tolerate.

Personally I'm surprised More people arnt using TMobile's No-Contract, 100mins/unlimited Text/Unlimited Data plan for 30$/month. I understand the stickershock of buying a phone outright but its gotta be better than the 100/mo you end up spending on ATT/VZN.

I'm not 1000% sure, but I don't think you can use that with a smartphone. Otherwise, I'm already on a T-Mobile no contract plan, and that sounds even better.

Here's a stupid question: If data is all the same, why does it cost so damn much for someone who has the low end plan to get more data? The high end plan says it's $10 for each additional GB, so why is it $20 for the lower end people to get less data?

For that matter, you should ask why when you get a subsidized phone plan that pays for the phone over the course of 2 years, why doesn't your bill drop at the end of those two years? If you've paid off the phone, why are you still making payments on it?